A Christ Walk Church - Statement of Faith

Briefly...

We believe that the full, final and Ultimate authority is the Bible,
in its original form, which was written by men acting as God's instruments.
There is only One Living, True, Holy God, Who exists as the Trinity of
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father created and maintains the
universe. The Son, Jesus, was born of the virgin Mary, lived a mortal
existence, during which He taught and demonstrated Christian lessons.
He was betrayed, crucified, died and was buried, and arose on the third
day. He is now in Heaven, where He awaits us. His physical death was
the instrument of atonement for our sins, which allows us access to
the path to Heaven. He will someday return to complete God's plan
for the world.

Salvation is necessary because of the Original Sin of Adam and Eve.
Salvation is only available by Grace of God through Faith in Jesus
Christ Alone. The Holy Spirit is present to help us both in this
(justification) and in the following continuous Christian development
(sanctification), to be fully prepared to be in the presence of God.
All who are Saved become part of the Church, the living Body of Jesus.
Jesus instructed all Christians to observe two sacraments, Baptism
and Holy Communion (or the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist.)

Each person who is spiritually saved by the Grace of God in
response to repentance and Faith in Jesus, becomes a member
(I Cor. 12:27)
of His living body,
(Rom. 12:4-5)
the church. The one,
(John 17:20-21;
Eph. 4:3-6)
true, holy
(I Cor. 3:16-17)
church
(Matt. 16:17-18;
I Cor. 1:2;
Eph. 2:18-19;
I Pet. 2:9-10)
is very broad, and includes
all those who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
Scripture commands that believers meet for
worship,
(Matt. 18:19)
prayer, teaching of the Word, observance of baptism
(Matt. 28:19-20)
and communion
(I Cor. 11:23-26)
as sacramental ordinances established by Jesus
Christ, fellowship, service to the body through the development
and use of talents and gifts, and outreach to the world.
Wherever God's people meet in obedience to this command, there
is local expression of the church.
(Matt. 18:19)
Members of these local
churches are neither perfect or sinless,
(Isa. 53:6)
but continually strive
to use the Holy Spirit to grow. A result of this growth is
the greater expression of His love, peace, joy, and the other
Christ-like qualities. The outreach efforts should include
preliminary steps to first encourage Trust in Him and His
followers. After this trust is established, belief in Him and
obeyance to Him is possible and can be pursued more directly.
Members of the church should work at maturing in their individual
Walks
(Matt. 18:18)
by learning the Word, by participating in Fellowship with
other believers, and discipling to others to grow the
collective faith.

Salvation is by Grace through Faith alone.
(Rom. 1:16-17)
Then, AS A RESULT OF THIS SALVATION and the new indwelling
presence of the Holy Spirit, "good works" will naturally
follow.
(Eph. 2:8)
Jesus gave us numerous examples and lessons on appropriate thoughts
and behavior while He was with us on Earth. By following His
examples, we more closely Walk in His path.
(I Peter 2:21;
I Peter 2:12)
In addition, as a RESULT of our salvation, we naturally do
"good works" which will be rewarded in Heaven.
(Matt. 16:27;
Matt. 18:18;
James 1:25)
Our congregation is filled with His love, and the effects of
the Holy Spirit's effect of the members just "spill over"
onto others and are seen as good deeds and attitudes.
(Eph. 2:8)
This situation also makes for
great happiness and fulfillment in our members.
(Jer. 31:17)

The Epistle of James generally emphasizes that good
works issue FROM faith. In the 1500s, Martin Luther was concerned that
it might instead suggest that works were necessary requirements FOR
faith, but that was clearly incorrect. Some of what Luther was concerned
about was
(James 2:14;
James 2:17;
James 2:22;
James 2:24)
the references that faith
without good works still resulted in a dead soul. These did NOT
contradict the faith alone concept, but just confirmed that we are
supposed to LIVE and DEMONSTRATE Christ's teachings, not merely
understand them.
(James 1:22-26)
This point is a central goal of A Christ Walk Church
(particularly James 1:22-26).
James is definitely supportive of
justification by faith alone. Of course, Romans 1-4 and
Galatians 3-4 present this justification by faith alone in a
more straightforward manner, with the rest of Romans suggesting
the effects and implications on us.

All humans will experience a physical death. Then there will
be a resurrection of each body into the spiritual world, followed
by a judgment
(Heb. 9:27)
that will determine the ultimate fate of each individual.
Unbelievers will be condemned to Hell and therefore separated from
God forever.
(Rom. 6:23;
Luke 16:26)
Believers will be received into
eternal communion with God, in Heaven, and will be rewarded
for works done during the mortal life. The fate of each
believer is existence in an environment that is the ultimate
Heaven for each of them individually.

We believe that Scripture is the final authority of all
matters of faith and practice. Where Scripture is silent, we
believe that the Holy Spirit will aid each individual to
identify proper thoughts and actions. The individual and God
may be the only ones truly aware of the motivation of the
individual's actions, and that pair will ultimately be
responsible for determining the consequences of those actions.
Human witnessing of the good and bad in human behavior, including
by clergy, is unnecessary. (It is not necessary to "play to
an audience" to have positive character aspects noticed by the Lord.)

Note: Occasionally, people have wanted to print out this Statement
of Faith. Because of the colors we chose, this page does not print out
very well. We have included a black-and-white text
version of this page in order to print it out.